Uncharted Seas Errata

One of the things that concerned me about Uncharted Seas, but that I didn't want to comment on because I hadn't actually played with them yet, was the Orc fleet. It seemed to me that they had a lot of advantages without that many disadvantages compared to the other fleets. Well, Spartan Games recently redid their point cost system to more easily fit in future releases, and as part of the review they decided that the Orcs had indeed been under-priced under the old system. They've taken the rather unusual approach of giving the players two options to fix this.

The first option is to use new stats that have been redesigned so that the costs and abilities are more in line with the other navies. The result is that they still have fairly powerful forward firepower, although not as much as before, and significantly weaker firepower to the sides. This should lead to a navy that plays quite differently from all the others. The other fleets all generally want to maneuver for a broadside shot at their opponents, but the Orcs are going to want to charge in with their enemies straight ahead. This lets them get in more powerful shots and get in close to ram and board the enemy.

The second option is for players to use the old stats which have had the new point costs applied to them, meaning that they'll end up being outnumbered by their opponents when running a game with equal point costs.

It's good to see that Spartan Games is concerned about balance issues, and continues to address them. It's also good to see that they want to give their customers options as to how to play their game. I actually find the new Orc stats more interesting than the old ones that used a unique firing arc rule, but it's nice to see that they haven't abandoned those players that liked the old system better. I look forward to trying them out once my Orc starter navy arrives.

You can check out the repointed stat cards, including both old and new orcs, here. One side effect of the changes is that the starter navies are no longer exactly even on points, but they are still close enough to be considered a reasonable matchup.